Richard Rohr Giving Quotations

If God continues to give me health and a sane mind and verbal ability, I want to teach.

I think most human beings are dualistic thinkers. It gets them through the day. It gives them a sense of superiority and security - that's what the ego wants.

The more one gives one's self in creative union with another, the more one becomes one's self.

The Gospel gives our suffering personal and cosmic meaning, by connecting our pain to the pain of others, and finally, by connecting us to the very pain of God.

The important thing is the willingness to give back the gift that is you, not the perfection of the gift itself. Can you feel the difference?

People will often, almost always, prefer a male God. A male image of God gives them this sense of security, safety, order, no nonsense. So that's where their psyche is at. Probably it's something that they've got to go through. Not that there isn't a need for order in the world, but the mystical level seems to be the mature level of religion, and there the question is not order but union - divine union. And so, without some integration of the feminine, usually you never get to the mystical level.

You do need some successes as a young person. They don't inflate the ego necessarily, they just give you identity and ego structure. But, don't construct your life around creating those. Or you will become narcissistic and ego-centric. That won't get you anywhere.

To give, and not demand that others receive . . . that is the crossover point to maturity. . .